One third of under-5s have sleep problems, study finds

MORE than a third of children between the ages of six months to five years have persistent and severe sleep problems, research shows.

Child clinical psychologist Anne O’Connor, who has just set up a sleep clinic in Galway where parents can get help to create a healthy sleeping pattern for their child, said help is available.

“The effects of inadequate sleep on both the child and parents can be enormous. We now have a range of intervention strategies that have been demonstrated to be successful in solving young children’s sleep patterns,” she said.

Ms O’Connor, founder of www.rollercoaster.ie — a website for parents — said a review of children’s sleep problems by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found behavioural interventions produce reliable and durable changes in sleep patterns.

“Of the studies reviewed, over 80% of the children treated made significant improvements that were still evident three to six months after the initial intervention,” said Ms O’Connor, who has previously run sleep clinics in Dublin and London.

Before their first visit to the new clinic in Kinvara, Co Galway, parents will receive a sleep diary to be filled in for five nights.

The first appointment costing 110 usually takes an hour to get background information from the parents before setting out an intervention plan.

Further appointments that cost 60 will be on reviewing progress and, in some cases, adjusting the intervention plan to take account of changed circumstances.

Ms O’Connor said chronic sleep problems affect a child’s ability to concentrate, their intellectual development, their general health and daytime behaviour.

In many cases, changing a child’s sleep associations to help them learn to settle themselves to sleep without their parents and going back to sleep when they wake up at night without crying or calling out, is key.

Ms O’Connor stressed that parents must find a solution that works for their child.

“Which approach you choose will depend on the problem you are dealing with and also your preference. Do not feel that you have to use any particular approach — it will only work if you are comfortable using it.”

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